20,000 At Funeral Services For S. African Riot Victims

JOHANNESBURG — About20,000 blacks, led by honor guards carrying wooden rifles shaped like Soviet AK-47s, attended funeral services Saturday for 11 black people shot to death in Queenstown last month.

In other developments, the government announced tighter controls on foreign exchange dealings.

During the services, Curnick Ndlovu, national chairman of the United Democratic Front, the largest opposition group in South Africa, said blacks ``shall fight to the last drop of our blood to overthrow this apartheid system.``

Police and soldiers manned roadblocks approaching the Mlungisi stadium in the black township outside the eastern Cape province farming community, but did not interfere in the five-hour service.

Some cars were searched and police arrested three people. Molly Blackburn, a leading anti-apartheid campaigner, said she tried to find out why the three were detained ``but the reaction (from police) was absolutely zero.``

The deaths marked one of the highest single-day death tolls in 15 months of racial unrest that has claimed 937 lives, according to figures compiled by the respected Institute of Race Relations in Johannesburg.

The new government financial controls, announced by Finance Minister Barend du Plessis in Pretoria, followed a four-month suspension of foreign debt repayments that began Sept. 1.

Under the measures, to take effect Dec. 9, the South African Reserve Bank will pay gold mining companies only in rands for bullion sold overseas. Presently, such payments are split evenly between rands and U.S. dollars.

The value of the rand has plummeted under international pressure on the government to make changes in its system of apartheid, or racial segregation.

Economists predicted the new moves would have a short-term beneficial effect, but several financial sources said relief would only be temporary.

``The real cause of the low rand -- the political pressure on South Africa -- has not been addressed,`` one source said.